Yahoo has acquired the start-up Incredible Labs Inc. and as part of the deal, will pull down the personal assistant app Donna.
Yahoo has been on an acquisition spree and has already bought a number of companies such as Ptch, Evntlive and PeerCDN towards the end of 2013. The company is also said to have been interested in Imgur. It seems that Yahoo will continue buying smaller companies in 2014 and the latest Yahoo acquisition for the year is Incredible Labs, the maker of Donna.
"Today, we are announcing that Incredible Labs has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo. We're looking forward to the possibilities that will come from bringing the Donna vision-letting technology take care of you-to Yahoo. Upon closing, our team will be joining Yahoo and working with some incredibly talented people, or in the case of some of us, returning to a company we know and love," said Kevin Cheng, CEO of Incredible Labs in a blog post.
"The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close shortly. Following closing, Donna will be removed from the app store and discontinued as a service. We can't begin to express how thankful we are for your support throughout this journey. What we've accomplished thus far is just the beginning and we hope you stick with us through the next chapter," added Cheng.
Incredible Labs comprises a seven-member team including Cheng. The acquisitions will see five of the seven Incredible Labs employees, including Cheng, join Yahoo. According to a TechCrunch report, the Incredible Labs team will join the Yahoo Communications department headed by Senior Vice President Jeff Bonforte. The team will be working on Yahoo Mail.
Launched in 2013, Donna was also considered as a potential rival to the Siri. The personal assistant app reminds users of appointments, shows directions, gives weather updates, provides access to conference calls and has many more features with an easy-to-use interface.
Yahoo does not have a personal assistant app and rumors have been surfacing that the company is working on an app similar to Siri and Google Now. The acquisition of Incredible Labs may help Yahoo build upon Donna and develop an app that may give competition to the likes of Siri.
